I don’t know if I should be freaked out or not. I posted this on Friday, July 30, 2010:

On Wednesday, while having recess in the SAC (canteen) with classmates, I finished my plate of noodles and was waiting for the rest to finish theirs. Suddenly, a young boy (year 3 or below) carrying a pack of Oreos suddenly walked towards me and took my plate away. I was quite stunned at first and didn’t have time to react before he turned to walk away. After trailing him, my friends and I realised he wasn’t trying to play a prank or anything – he put my plate back to the correct stall container. This incident left quite an impact on me because I regretted not acting fast enough to thank him (and partly because I had no idea why I was his only target).

Yesterday, during recess, I went to queue at the usual rice stall with Sharon in front of me. There actually wasn’t really much of a queue. There was a guy who had just gotten his food, so he turned around from the counter to move off from the stall. Then he spotted me and suddenly said, “Oh sorry, I should have let you gone first…”, and then he walked off. I didn’t see it coming, so I was so shocked I just managed to smile, shake my head and say, “No, it’s alright”. Then it suddenly occurred to me that he was the boy I met almost 2 months ago.

I was left confused and rather spooked by the literally “curious incident” for the rest of that day. I thought he was just doing it as a “dare” the first time round. But now that it happened again, and specifically on me, I’m getting more conscious. If I ever bump into him again, I’m definitely going to ask who he is and how he got to know me.

I received the DipABRSM results this afternoon and I wasn’t successful. I expected myself to fail the recital because I didn’t play the best I could, but turns out I passed. I passed viva voce as well. It was the quick study that killed me. My overall percentage is a pass, but since I failed the quick study section, I have to retake it and hopefully pass overall so I can get the diploma.

I’m thankful for the result but I’ll just need some time to let it pass. I was considering retaking the recital part as well, just to prove to myself that I could play better than that, but I decided against it since it’s just a waste of money. There’s really no need to do that since I’m more concerned with my improvement in the long run, rather than just looking back and feeling happy about a grade I got years ago.

Now, off to productive labour.

My Chinese teacher was going through the answers for the past-year IB Chinese papers last Friday and as usual, some people in class (occasionally me) were secretly doing their own work. Then she was trying to explain what “地下工作者” meant. In English, it refers to people who seem to be doing something but are actually doing something else. Then she started giving an example of how some people in class seemed to be doing Chinese but were actually doing their own work. And it so happened that Justin (my desk partner) was doing his physics, and we immediately burst into laughter. Then she went on to elaborate, “我知道你们当中有些人在做你们的什么... Physics 啊...". It was unbelievably true and that was what made it kind of funny.

That episode kept us laughing for about 10 minutes non-stop. Partly because laughter is infectious. One stops, the other giggles, and both start laughing again.

Then it worsened when we were going through an article on "拼", and we were trying to come up with 配词 for "拼". So there were words like 拼命 etc. Then someone from the back of the class suddenly said, “pong”. Again, I got into a tiring laughing state.

My jaws were tired and my eyes teared up by the end of Chinese lesson.

This is the power of laughter.

I was feeling very free today and decided to re-arrange a song I used to sing through my years in the children’s section of Sunday School.

These are the lyrics:

我献什么给耶稣 报他救我宏恩

他因爱我舍己身 我当如何爱他

我献我心给耶稣 虽然所献微小

恩主必定不轻看 因他所爱惟此

To listen, click here. The first playing is the simplified initial version, the second playing is my re-arrangement. Sorry excuse the boring left hand accompaniment because I don’t know how to play the piano and note down the notes I play for that matter. The main thing I changed was the chord progression.

It’s been an interesting day. In the afternoon, xj and siling came over to play tennis with me. Xj and I spent about half an hour drying to dry the court, and it was nearly more tiring than playing tennis. I finally did some exercise after living like some civilised pig for a few weeks.

In the evening, TF committee came over to my house for a BBQ. It was great fun and I had a good time laughing till my jaws hurt. Anyway, I’m thankful for the fellowship last night (it’s about 1 am now). It’s September now and tomorrow (today) will be the fourth last committee meeting I’ll be chairing…

Mom and dad are at Batam with Andrew Fellowship for a  teambuilding camp. Jean and I are left at home to fend for ourselves. We had to do quite a bit of housework after the BBQ. The weird thing is, when mom’s around nagging, we don’t usually follow all the “rules” of house chores (i.e. we omit some steps). But now that we’re left to operate that cleanliness reset button, we follow the house rules more closely than ever, like cleaning up every spec of dirt and following all routine house chore procedures with utmost precision. It’s weirdly true.

The holidays are almost over. Sigh.. Such short-lived happiness.

It’s been a tiring week, especially the last few days. There were hours of rehearsals till late at night in preparation for tonight’s performance, and the parts weren’t as easy as I was told they would be. Thankfully, I’m not playing violin 1. Otherwise I’d have to practice twice as hard and I’d probably be deader than before.

This is what happened tonight: news 

How I was selected to play for this concert/award ceremony still remains a mystery to me. I’m a worse than average player and all the other school participants were the super pro people sitting way in front of their orchestras. I emphasize again, I’m just a below average player. Yet, I sat at the second desk, which probably does a lot of injustice to many others behind me who are more deserving of that spot.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the fun and stress of playing – my second time playing with a full symphony orchestra.

The president came.. Oh and I had a pleasant surprise when I bumped into Mr Chia yesterday. I didn’t realise he was playing too till then. I chatted with him for a while and he said he still remembered Jie Ying and Ariela (he couldn’t remember anyone else..).

If anyone is interested..

Bernstein: Candide Overture

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra 1/2

The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra 2/2